Chishui Bamboo Sea 赤水竹海

About Chishui Bamboo Sea

The provincial forestry bureau divides the park into four main scenic areas — Yezhuping, Jinshagou, Houcao and the Yaozhangou primary-forest research area — with a number of separate sights besides, among them Wuzhuyan, Houzishi, Hongjundu and Shimeisi. The Chishui River runs through the park's gorges, green hills and bamboo paths on either bank. The bureau describes the mid-subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest belt of the Guizhou plateau as well preserved here, with cover reaching 96 per cent, and records three nationally first-class protected plant species, more than twenty second-class protected plant species and twenty-two second-class protected animal species inside the park.

The setting is also historical: the forestry bureau describes this stretch of country as the place where the Red Army made its four crossings of the Chishui, and as a zone where Sichuanese and Guizhou customs mix — one of the separate sights it lists is called Hongjundu, the Red Army crossing. Within the park there is a lake, Zhuhai Hu, with a trail running round it, a danxia stone path that winds into the depths of the bamboo, and a tower called the Guanhai Lou from which the bamboo canopy can be looked out over.

What to look for

• The Guanhai Lou, the tower from which the bamboo canopy is looked out over.
• Zhuhai Hu, the lake inside the park, and the trail that runs round it.
• The danxia stone path that winds into the depths of the bamboo forest.
• The four main scenic areas the forestry bureau names — Yezhuping, Jinshagou, Houcao and the Yaozhangou primary-forest research area.
• Hongjundu, the Red Army crossing, one of the separate sights listed inside the park on the river the Red Army crossed four times.

Location & getting there

Getting to Chishui Bamboo Sea

Check weather, trail access and the last return service. A mountain or forest area is not one entrance, and a map’s central pin may be far from the trailhead.

• Search for 赤水竹海 with 遵义市 and 赤水市.